The image of Biryuk in the story of the same name by I. Turgenev

The writing

I. S. Turgenev was one of the foremost people of his time. He realized that in order to win the right to be called a folk writer, talent alone is not enough, you need "sympathy for the people, a kindred disposition" and "the ability to penetrate the essence of your people, their language and way of life." The collection of short stories "Notes of a Hunter" describes the peasant world in a very vivid and multifaceted way.

In all the stories there is one and the same hero - the nobleman Pyotr Petrovich. He loves hunting very much, travels a lot and talks about the cases that happened to him. We also meet Pyotr Petrovich in "Biryuk", which describes his acquaintance with a mysterious and gloomy forester, nicknamed Biryuk, "whom all the surrounding peasants were afraid of like fire." The meeting takes place in the forest during a thunderstorm, and the forester invites the master to his house to hide from the weather. Pyotr Petrovich accepts the invitation and finds himself in an old hut "from one room, smoky, low and empty." He notices the minutiae of the gloomy existence of the forester's family. His wife "ran away with a passer-by." And Foma Kuzmich was left alone with two small children. Eldest daughter Julitta, herself still a child, nurses the baby, cradling him in the cradle. Poverty and family grief have already left their mark on the girl. She has a downcast "sad face", timid movements. The description of the hut makes a depressing impression. Everything here breathes sadness and wretchedness: “a torn sheepskin coat hung on the wall”, “a torch burned on the table, sadly flaring up and going out”, “a pile of rags lay in the corner”, “the bitter smell of cooled smoke” hovered everywhere and made it difficult to breathe. The heart in Pyotr Petrovich’s chest “wounded: it’s not fun to enter a peasant’s hut at night.” When the rain passed, the forester heard the sound of an ax and decided to catch the intruder. Barin went with him.

The thief turned out to be "a wet man, in rags, with a long disheveled beard," who, apparently, did not go to steal from a good life. He has a “drunk, wrinkled face, hanging yellow eyebrows, restless eyes, thin limbs. He begs Biryuk to let him go with the horse, justifying himself that “the children are squeaking from hunger.” The tragedy of a hungry peasant life, a difficult life, appears before us in the image of this miserable, desperate man who exclaims: “Knock down - one end; that from hunger, that so - everything is one.

The realism of the depiction of everyday pictures of the life of peasants in the story of I. S. Turgenev is impressive to the core. And at the same time we face social problems of that time: the poverty of the peasants, hunger, cold, forcing people to steal.

Other writings on this work

The childhood of I. S. Turgenev passed in the Oryol region. A nobleman by birth, who received an excellent secular upbringing and education, he early witnessed an unfair attitude towards the common people. Throughout his life, the writer was distinguished by an interest in the Russian way of life and sympathy for the peasants.

In 1846, Turgenev several summer and autumn months spent in his native estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. He often went hunting, and on long trips around the neighborhood, fate brought him together with people of different classes and wealth. The results of observations of the life of the local population were stories that appeared in 1847-1851 in the journal Sovremennik. A year later, the author combined them into one book, called "Notes of a Hunter." Among them was a story written in 1848 with the unusual title "Biryuk".

The narration is conducted on behalf of Pyotr Petrovich, a hunter who unites all the stories of the cycle. At first glance, the plot is quite simple. The narrator, returning somehow from a hunt, gets caught in the rain. He meets a forester who offers to wait out the bad weather in his hut. So Pyotr Petrovich becomes a witness difficult life a new friend and his children. Foma Kuzmich leads a secluded life. The peasants living in the district do not like and are even afraid of the formidable forester, and for his unsociableness they gave him the nickname Biryuk.

The summary of the story can be continued with an unexpected incident for the hunter. When the rain subsided a little, the sound of an ax was heard in the forest. Biryuk and the narrator go to the sound, where they find a peasant who has decided to steal, even in such bad weather, obviously not from a good life. He tries to pity the forester with persuasion, talks about a hard life and hopelessness, but he remains adamant. Their conversation continues in the hut, where the desperate peasant suddenly raises his voice and begins to accuse the owner of all the peasant troubles. In the end, the latter does not stand up and releases the offender. Gradually, in the course of the unfolding scene, Biryuk reveals himself to the narrator and reader.

Appearance and behavior of the forester

Biryuk was well built, tall and broad-shouldered. His black-bearded face looked both stern and manly; brown eyes peered boldly out from under broad brows.

All actions and behavior expressed determination and impregnability. His nickname was not accidental either. This word in southern regions Russia is called a lone wolf, which Turgenev knew well. Biryuk in the story is an unsociable, stern person. That is how he was perceived by the peasants, on whom he always inspired fear. Biryuk himself explained his steadfastness by a conscientious attitude to work: “you don’t have to eat the master’s bread for free.” He was in the same predicament as most of people, that's just complaining and relying on someone is not used to.

Hut and family of Foma Kuzmich

A painful impression is made by acquaintance with his housing. It was one room, low, empty and smoky. She did not feel a woman's hand: the hostess ran away with the tradesman, leaving her husband two children. A tattered sheepskin coat hung on the wall, and a pile of rags lay on the floor. The hut smelled of cooled smoke, making it difficult to breathe. Even the torch burned sadly and then went out, then flared up again. The only thing the host could offer the guest was bread, he had nothing else. So sadly and in a beggarly way lived the fearful Biryuk.

The story continues with a description of his children, which completes the gloomy picture. In the middle of the hut hung a cradle with baby, she was rocked by a girl of about twelve with timid movements and a sad face - her mother left them in the care of her father. The narrator's "heart ached" from what he saw: it is not easy to enter a peasant's hut!

The heroes of the story "Biryuk" in the scene of the theft of the forest

Thomas reveals himself in a new way during a conversation with a desperate peasant. The appearance of the latter eloquently speaks of the hopelessness and complete poverty in which he lived: he is dressed in rags, his beard is disheveled, his face is drunk, and his whole body is incredibly thin. The intruder cut down the tree carefully, apparently hoping that in bad weather the probability of being caught was not so great.

Caught stealing the master's forest, he first begs the forester to let him go, calls him Foma Kuzmich. However, the more the hope that he will be released melts away, the more angry and sharper the words begin to sound. The peasant sees before him a murderer and a beast deliberately humiliating the peasant.

I. Turgenev introduces a completely unpredictable denouement into the story. Biryuk suddenly grabs the intruder by the sash and pushes him out the door. We can assume what was happening in his soul during the entire scene: compassion and pity come into conflict with a sense of duty and responsibility for the task assigned. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Foma knew from his own experience how hard the life of a peasant is. To Pyotr Petrovich's surprise, he only waves his hand.

Description of nature in the story

Turgenev has always been famous as a master of landscape sketches. They are also present in the work "Biryuk".

The story begins with a description of an ever-increasing and expanding thunderstorm. And then, completely unexpectedly for Pyotr Petrovich, Foma Kuzmich appears from the forest, dark and wet, who feels at home here. He easily pulls the frightened horse from its place and, keeping calm, leads it to the hut. Turgenev's landscape is a reflection of the essence of the protagonist: Biryuk leads life as gloomy and gloomy as this forest in bad weather.

The summary of the work needs to be supplemented with one more point. When the sky begins to clear up a little, there is hope that the rain will end soon. Like this scene, the reader suddenly discovers that the impregnable Biryuk is capable of good deeds and simple human sympathy. However, this “slightly” remains - an unbearable life has made the hero the way the local peasants see him. And this cannot be changed overnight and at the request of a few people. Both the narrator and the readers come to such unhappy thoughts.

Meaning of the story

The cycle "Notes of a Hunter" includes works that reveal the image of ordinary peasants in different ways. In some stories, the author draws attention to their spiritual breadth and wealth, in others he shows how talented they can be, in the third he describes their meager life ... Thus, different sides of the character of a peasant are revealed.

Lawlessness and the miserable existence of the Russian people in the era of serfdom - this is the main theme of the story "Biryuk". And this is the main merit of Turgenev the writer - to draw public attention to the tragic situation of the main breadwinner of the entire Russian land.

This story is included in Turgenev's cycle of works "Notes of a Hunter". In order to better reveal the topic “Characteristics of a biryuk”, you need to know the plot well, and it is tied to the fact that a hunter, lost in the forest, is suddenly overtaken by a thunderstorm. To wait out the bad weather, he hid under a large bush. But then the local forester Foma Kuzmich picked him up and took him to his home. There, the hunter saw the wretched refuge of his savior, and at the same time he had two children: a 12-year-old girl and a baby in a cradle. There was no wife in the house, she ran away from him with another, leaving him children.

Turgenev, "Biryuk": characteristics of the biryuk

This gloomy forester people called the biryuk. He had a broad figure and a face that betrayed no emotion. When the rain stopped, they went outside. And then the sound of an ax was heard, the forester immediately realized where it was coming from, and soon dragged a wet peasant who begged for mercy. The hunter immediately took pity on the poor peasant and was ready to pay for him, but the stern biryuk himself let him go.

As you can see, the characterization of a biryuk is not easy, Turgenev shows a hero, although a beggar, but who knows his duty well, whom “neither wine nor money” can be taken in any way. He understands a man-thief who is trying to somehow get out of "starvation". And here the hero's conflict between a sense of duty and compassion for a poor person is shown, and yet he decided in favor of compassion. Foma Kuzmich is a solid and strong personality, but tragic, because he has his own views on life, but sometimes he, a principled person, has to give them up.

Characteristics of a biryuk

The author points out that in the middle of the 19th century, the majority of the peasant people treated theft as something natural and ordinary. Of course, serious social problems led to this phenomenon: lack of education, poverty and immorality.

But it is the biryuk that is unlike most of these people, although he is the same beggar as everyone else. His hut consisted of one little room, low and empty. But still he does not steal, although if he did, he could afford a better house.

Duty and Compassion

The characteristic of the biryuk says that he himself does not steal, and does not give to others, because he understands perfectly well that if everyone does this, it will only get worse.

He is confident in this and therefore firm in his decision. But, as the essay describes, his principles sometimes compete with feelings of pity and compassion, and he will have this hesitation all his life. After all, he understands the one who, out of his hopelessness, goes to steal.

Simply, poetically and with love, Russia is shown in I. S. Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter. The author admires the simple folk characters, fields, forests, meadows of Russia. No matter how one treats stories, this is primarily poetry, not politics. With great love and observation, the shortest story in the Biryuk cycle was written. The depth of content is combined with the perfection of form, which speaks of the writer's ability to subordinate all components of the work, all his artistic techniques to a single creative task.

Biryuk in the Oryol province was called a gloomy and lonely person. The forester Foma lived alone in a smoky and low hut with two young children, his wife left him, family grief and a hard life made him even more gloomy and unsociable.

The main and only event of the story is the capture by the forester of a poor peasant who cut down a tree in the manor's forest. The conflict of the work consists in the collision of the forester with the peasant.

The image of Biryuk is complex and contradictory, and in order to understand it, let's pay attention to the artistic means used by the author.

The description of the situation speaks of how poor the hero is. This dwelling was a sad sight: “I looked around - my heart ached in me: it’s not fun to enter a peasant’s hut at night.”

The psychological portrait of the forester testifies to the exceptional strength of Biryuk, it becomes clear why all the surrounding peasants were afraid of him. “He was tall, broad-shouldered and well-built. ... A black curly beard half covered his stern and courageous face; from under wide unibrows, small Brown eyes". In appearance, this man is rude and formidable, but in fact he is good and kind. And the narrator clearly admires his hero.

The key to understanding the character of Thomas is the nickname given to him by the peasants. From them we get an indirect description of the forester: "a master of his craft"; “knitted brushwood will not be dragged away”; “strong... and dexterous as a demon... And nothing can take him: neither wine, nor money; does not take any bait."

The plot, consisting of two episodes (the forester met the hunter during a thunderstorm and helped him; he also caught the peasant at the scene of the crime, and then set him free), reveals the best features of the character of the hero. It is difficult for Foma to make a choice: to act at the behest of duty or to take pity on the peasant. The despair of the captured peasant awakens the best feelings in the forester.

Nature in the story is not just a background, it is an integral part of the content, helping to reveal the character of Biryuk. Combinations of words depicting the rapid onset of bad weather, dull pictures of nature emphasize the drama of the situation of the peasants: “a thunderstorm was approaching”, “a cloud was slowly rising”, “clouds were rushing”.

Turgenev helped not only to see the life of the peasants, to sympathize with their troubles and needs, he turned us to the spiritual world of the Russian peasant, noticed many unique, interesting individuals. “After all, my Russia is dearer to me than anything in the world ...,” I. S. Turgenev would write later. "Notes of a Hunter" is a tribute to the writer of Russia, a kind of monument to the Russian peasantry.

Characteristics of the hero

Biryuk is a whole person, but tragic. His tragedy lies in the fact that he has his own views on life, but sometimes he has to give them up. The work shows that most peasants of the middle of the 19th century treated theft as something ordinary: “Knitted brushwood will not be allowed to be dragged out of the forest,” the peasant said, as if he had every right to steal brushwood from the forest. Of course, leading role in the formation of such a worldview, some social problems played: the insecurity of the peasants, lack of education and immorality. Biryuk is not like them. He himself lives in deep poverty: “Biryuk’s hut consisted of one room, smoky, low and empty, without shelves and partitions,” but he does not steal (if he stole the forest, he could afford a white hut) and tries to wean him from this others: "But you still don't go to steal." He is clearly aware that if everyone steals, it will only get worse. Confident in his rightness, he firmly strides towards his own goal.

However, his confidence is sometimes undermined. For example, in the case described in the essay, when human feelings of pity and compassion compete in it with life principles. After all, if a person really needs and he has no other way, he often goes to theft out of hopelessness. Foma Kuzmich (the forester) had the hardest lot of fluctuating between feelings and principles all his life.

The essay "Biryuk" has many artistic merit. These are picturesque pictures of nature, and an inimitable style of narration, and the originality of heroes, and much, much more. Ivan Sergeevich's contribution to Russian literature is invaluable. His collection "Notes of a Hunter" is among the masterpieces of Russian literature. And the problems raised in the work are relevant to this day.